Minute to Magnificent includes the invertebrates.....the butterfly house and section with the spider, cockroaches, stick insects, etc. Going Wild incorporates the North East corner of the zoo.....most of the big cats, lemur, bears, peccaries and maned wolved. Basically after Rainforest, and Trail it's "everything that's left".....don't know whose idea that was. And, Patrick, if this zoo stuff is stressing you out so much maybe you should try interests like golf or tennis? Macrame, perhaps? Everything from fondues to sideburns has re-emerged from the 70's......macrame is next. Me...I find knitting very theraupeutic.
Okey dokey..... I've just found out that some tree shrews will be arriving soon....they will be housed in the last enclosure in tree top/arboreal section (replacing the love birds....the love birds are moving to the first aviary when you enter rainforest which currently houses emporer tamarin....don't know where the tamarin are going.) Later in the year will see the arrival of some pygmy marmosets. Four of the Hamadryas Baboons are going to Crocodylus Park in NT (I think they're males) and two males will arriving from Perth as part of a breeding program. That's it from me. Over and out....
apparently the zoo has had a pair of tree shrews for ages but has never had them on display - true? this particular emperor tamarin is a hybrid or of unknown origin. i believe it to be cruel that the zoo has kept this animal on its own and without even the visual enrichment of its own species. this could have been done with a very simple enclosure swap. with the cottontops or golden lions, who both have (small and space-stingy) cages adjoining the breeding pair of emperors. then again we are talking about a zoo that thought it was acceptable to kept a gorilla alone and in a pit for 15 years.....
treetop apes and monkeys... so the the new glass is great!! a massive improvement, its now straight vertical instead of angled (and smudged with dirty fingers) and is also from room to almost the floor as zookiah said. certainly makes for a much better view and revitalises this still-great exhibit. the best thing about the new glass is that it gives the white-cheeked gibbons the ability to hang directly in front of the glass. the female is my new best friend and would shuffle along the glass so she could stare directly into my face. when a new commer arrived she would shuffle over, check them out and then come back to me. likewise if i moved she followed. its amazing how much those two gibbons like people and her desire to push here face up against the glass gave the visitors a real supprise. most people commented on how beautiful she is and i have to agree with them. my new favorite. also i was glad to see that FINALLY someone has bothered to give the colobus some more climbing branches. this has driven me nuts for years, and i mean YEARS! things like this just leave me shaking my head and wondering what on earth is wrong with people. its so bloody obvious the very large exhibit was overwhelmingly underutilised and that the colobus were being neglected in the suitable climbing structures department. finally someone has seen some good sense and installed some fresh log poles and interconnected the existing ones. the result was the colobus can now sit much closer to the viewing glass than ever before. must have taken all of a days work - makes you wonder why it took so long. there is now three ruffed lemurs. i think melbourne might have inally got a breeding pair again. the de brazza guenons are now in rigo's old grotto.
I have had some great encounters with the female WC Gibbon. She really is a darling. I wish that they had more room though to show of more.
Ha Ha Ha... ROFLOL... Sorry I'm reading through this thread, (all 27 pages of it..!), but that response from Patrick to what is a bogan is priceless..!
Patrick, I'm not aware of the tree shrews being at the zoo for any period of time. When I made the post about them being on display was the first I'd heard we had any.
I visited in March 2006... It sounds like I missed out on something with the new Orang exhibit... I have to say (I know its been done to death) but the Baboon exhibit was shocking and amazing that it was still there for a zoo with such a good reputation... I thought it funny that they had an old (turn of the 20th century) Lion enclosure which said how zoo attitudes had changed and it was unacceptable to keep animals in these condition anymore when less than 100 m away they had one of the worst exhibits I've seen... But I digress... One of the themes of this thread has been how some species are dying out/inbred in OZ zoos because of poor management, however Melbourne (Stories from the sea?) and Taronga (GSO) are developing expensive/expansive aquatic exhibits and there has been no mention of co-ordination of animal species to be exhibited... Has this been considered..? Are endangered species to be housed..? Loved Werribee when I went last (just) year... I was really spoiled as that was my first open range zoo... I went to WPZ in Sep this year but Werribee is definitely in a better position long term from what I saw... Any plans for Werribee to get Elephants..?
Jeremy, Monarto zoo in south Aust is shaping up to be an outstanding open range zoo and may well be worth having a look in the next few years with the new attactions
I haven't been to Adelaide or Monarto yet... I may wait till they have the Panda's at Adelaide... I'm planning a trip to Australia Zoo in the New Year and may be moving from the NZ Police to the WA Police halfway through next year which will give the perfect oppurtunity to visit Perth Zoo and Adelaide/Monarto Zoo... Perth Zoo seems much like Auckland Zoo to me... A excellent small(ish) zoo that would benefit greatly from a satellite (or open range) zoo...
1,000 ha, eh..? Wow..! Is it all developed..? I.e San Diego WAP is 2,000 acres but only 900 or so developed... How many acres is 1000 ha..? It must be over 2000 acres..?
